THE Philippine Council of Deans and Educators in Business (PCDEB) conducted their annual conference, which focuses on new trends in business education, on Thursday, February 16.
With the theme “Breakthrough Innovations in Business Education toward Quality Global Standards,” the conference was held at the Mallberry Suites Business Hotel, Cagayan de Oro with Dean Ferdinand Rodriguez, PCDEB president, spearheading the event.
The current business education in the Philippines is said to be facing a number of challenges especially in the marketing, finance, management, and accounting areas. The conference lead to discussions on subjects those are vital to business educators.
The Board of Directors believed this is highly relevant to states, colleges, and universities who needs to do a customization and internalization of curriculum in the field of business organization.
“It will be more on the managerial and supervisory skills for our graduate college students. It will also be more on cognitive competencies because in business we are more on technical analysis. So, this is highly different from the tourism and hospitality wherein the skills are very basic, but in the business, it’s more on management supervision,” said Dean Maria Victoria Acac, Ed.D, president-elect of the PCDEB from Lyceum of the Philippines University Manila.
In business education, one of the rising problems in most business organization is the sustainability of companies, their financial, social, and the environmental risks, Acac said.
“In college education, the instructional method should be more on being immersed by the students and that having partnership with the business organizations and the students will not only be concentrating inside the classroom but they will also be exposed to the different industries in business. So if they are in accounting, so they go to internal audit. So really, they are going to be very specific in particular industry,” she said.
States, public and private schools should be open to the Asian framework that is to going to be adapted now. To do so, schools will just be creating linkages to industries. Most industries are open to partner with schools, and they will also help training students in aligning their skills in the industry, said Acac.
“Everything will be going to be all new for us because this is already an international standard – the Australian standard, the Asian standard, so we are all aligned. So, when our students graduate, their educational background is already aligned to the schools outside the country. So, they don’t need again to study another 2 years because that is also the dilemma of our college graduates, they are K to 10,” she said.
The PCDEB will also be integrating with Tesda in their curriculum.
The annual conference also highlighted the awarding of the Outstanding Business Educators.
“So for this year, we have 2 awardees. For Outstanding Business Educator in the Field of Management, we have one from Lipa City, Dr. Jean Panganiban, and in the field of Marketing, from San Beda College Manila, Dr. Jennifer Ramos. We have also the awarding for Accredited Professionals in Business. Usually, these are being evaluated through their credentials and they will be given corresponding titles. For this year, we have only one recipient in the diplomate education no less than, Dr. Maria Victoria Acac,” said Dean Maria Victoria U. Rosas, Ph.D, DBA, the Immediate Past President of PCDEB coming from Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Manila.
The accreditation is usually done with the presence of the Commission on Higher Education.
“So then, they can use the title after their name. So they are already legitimate members of the academy. We have 6 awardees from Mindanao, 10 from other parts of the countries. So we have a total of 18 new members in the academy. Private, public and states – as long you are teaching in Business, you are welcome to submit your credentials. Once you pass, you will be accredited during the annual convention,” Rosas said.